In anticipation of rising trade volumes brought about by the Silk Road Economic Belt, Henan, a Central China province, will add more customized services to its international cargo railway line to Europe in the second half of this year. 

 

The Silk Road Economic Belt, an initiative put forward by President Xi Jinping in 2013, is being established along the ancient Silk Road, which stretches northwest from China's coastal area through Central Asia to Europe. 

 

The upgraded railway line will offer temperature-controlled and more e-commerce related transport services to enhance its earning ability in the second half of this year. 

 

Zhao Jiancai, vice-governor of Henan, said the temperature-controlled rail cargo service would be introduced on the route in June. 

 

He said the province's current international cargo rail service offered large international brands economic solutions with high speed, reliability and sound safety standards. 

 

"The service will help to capture the growth in consumer demand for medicine and food, as well as catch opportunities from China's e-commerce boom. 

 

The online demand for healthcare, food and drink products will certainly surge over the next five years," said Zhao. "We believe that such a high standard service is critical to help us gain more clients in both Chinese and European markets." 

 

The temperature-controlled service will provide an all-year multi-modal shipping solution for temperature-sensitive European products, such as German medicines, Belgian chocolate, Dutch dairy products and French wine to China, which was previously unable to use the fast and cost-effective transcontinental west rail corridor, especially during winter and summer. 

 

The rail route was jointly launched by Henan provincial government and DB Schenker, the transport and logistics arm of Deutsche Bahn, the rail route's main partner outside China, in July 2013. The freight train takes 16 days to make the 10,214-kilometer trip, which is more than twice as fast as maritime transport. 

 

The route reaches Hamburg in Germany via Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus and Poland. Zhengzhou International Inland Port Development Co is responsible for cooperating with partner rail companies in each country. 

 

The freight rail cargo service can save 80 percent of transport costs compared with air shipments and is about $490 cheaper per container on average compared with road transport. 

 

Since 2010, other Chinese cities, including Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an and Wuhan have all launched weekly or monthly modern block train services to different European destinations.